Ivory coast man facing expulsion stabs bus driver in Italy

7/29/17 1:59 PM

MILAN — A man from the Ivory Coast who faced expulsion from Italy for previous aggressive behavior stabbed a public transit bus driver Saturday in the Tuscan city of Siena, causing a serious injury, police said.

Police said the man retrieved a knife from a home for asylum-seekers where he previously resided after an apparent argument with the bus driver at the end of the line. He returned to stab the driver twice in the stomach and once in the arm. The driver was in serious, but not life-threatening, condition, police said.

The man was known to authorities for previous aggressive behavior and had lost the status of asylum-seeker, police said. He was being housed by a Catholic charity pending his expulsion.

Neighbors who came to the driver’s aid alerted police, who shot the attacker in the leg after he turned his attack on them, first heaving a wine bottle from a nearby bar at them and then attacking them with a knife, police said. They first shot in the air as a warning, then in the leg when he did not stop, according to police.

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